Research Specialist / Scientist, Metabolic Phenotyping (In Vitro & In Vivo)

Key Responsibilities

• Design and execute in vivo rodent metabolic studies in collaboration with the team, including animal handling, dosing (intraperitoneal, intravenous, oral), metabolic phenotyping (glucose- and insulin-tolerance tests, CLAMS for metabolic monitoring), and endpoint tissue collection optimized for multi-omics, bioenergetic, and histological analysis.
• Perform immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry on cultured cells and metabolic tissues (e.g., liver, adipose, muscle), and operate fluorescence, confocal, or automated high-content imaging systems to visualize lipid droplets, mitochondrial morphology, and protein localization.
• Design and execute metabolic flux assays on the Agilent Seahorse XF analyzer, and prepare cellular and tissue extracts for downstream mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and lipidomics and for genomics workflows (RNA/DNA isolation, quantitative PCR).
• Analyze and interpret bioenergetic, imaging, and phenotyping data (Wave, ImageJ/FIJI, GraphPad Prism), drawing accurate conclusions that guide the next round of experiments.
• Maintain primary metabolic cell cultures and develop, optimize, and scale the throughput of cell-based assays.
• Document all work with accurate, timely records in the electronic laboratory notebook (ELN), and coordinate sample tracking and submissions with internal teams and external contract research organizations (CROs).
• Communicate results clearly through written summaries and presentations, and contribute to manuscripts and conference presentations.
• Collaborate across the discovery team to align in vitro mechanism-of-action findings with in vivo efficacy readouts.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education and experience — one of the following:
• PhD route (Scientist I–II): PhD in molecular biology, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, or a related life-sciences discipline, with a research focus in metabolism, and typically 0–2 years of relevant experience post-PhD;
• Non-PhD route (Research Specialist): Bachelor's degree in a related life-sciences discipline, with 8+ years of relevant hands-on industry research experience in metabolism.
• Hands-on experience across both in vitro and in vivo workflows, including direct experience designing and executing in vivo rodent studies (e.g., animal handling, dosing, metabolic phenotyping, and tissue collection), with a strong background in Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol compliance.
• Experience preparing biological samples for downstream metabolomics, lipidomics, or genomics pipelines.
• Demonstrated experience with immunofluorescence/immunohistochemistry staining and fluorescence, confocal, or automated high-content microscopy of cells or metabolic tissue sections.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to summarize, document, and present data clearly and to maintain rigorous ELN records.
• Track record of working effectively both independently and as part of a collaborative, cross-functional team.

Preferred Qualifications

• In vivo rodent experience specifically in preclinical metabolic disease models (e.g., obesity, diabetes, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis [MASH], or mitochondrial dysfunction).
• Hands-on experience setting up, running, and analyzing data from Agilent Seahorse XF instruments (or equivalent extracellular-flux/respirometry platforms).
• Experience with in vitro metabolic models such as hepatocytes, adipocytes, or myotubes, and with organoid or three-dimensional (3D) tissue culture.
• Familiarity with high-content screening (HCS) platforms and automated image-analysis workflows in Python or another scripting-based approach.
• Laboratory automation, flow cytometry (fluorescence-activated cell sorting, FACS), cell line engineering, and next-generation sequencing library preparation.
• Active ALAT/LAT (laboratory animal technician) certification.